Lou Ferrigno

[Stronguy]

Steroids increasing height by an inch or so had never occurred to me.

 

Anabolic steroids (and catabolic, for that matter) will not increase your height. Not even GH will do that. Once your growth plates close your skeleton is done growing. In fact may BBers who take steroids in their late teens end up missing out on their last growth spurt. Estrogen is what closes the growth plates (thus women being shorter than men). By taking extra androgens (particularly testosterone) you also increase estrogen... so you get short BBers (Lee Priest anyone?)

 

Having done such a search, my new best guess is vertebral compression over time. That's where the most give in the body seems like it would be in terms of vertical height.

 

Yup, disk compression is a big factor and amplified by vertical weight lifting (things like squats and cleans). Just for grins I measured myself before and after a leg workout (which included multiple sets of squats going up to 500 lbs). I was a full 3/4" shorter after the leg workout than when I started. Everything was back to normal the next morning. It is also worth noting that you are taller in the morning than in the evening. Just being vertical is enough to shrink you... and it builds up over time.

 

[mrwoogieman]

Spinal compression is also something ambulance chasers like to cite as a soft tissue injury when they are squeezing insurance companies. It's something a chiro or whoever will always find 'wrong'.

 

 

[mrmyst]

Steroids increasing height by an inch or so had never occurred to me.

 

"Anabolic steroids (and catabolic, for that matter) will not increase your height. Not even GH will do that. Once your growth plates close your skeleton is done growing. In fact may BBers who take steroids in their late teens end up missing out on their last growth spurt. Estrogen is what closes the growth plates (thus women being shorter than men). By taking extra androgens (particularly testosterone) you also increase estrogen... so you get short BBers (Lee Priest anyone?)"

 

Barry Bonds' head?

 

[Stronguy]

Spinal compression is also something ambulance chasers like to cite as a soft tissue injury when they are squeezing insurance companies. It's something a chiro or whoever will always find 'wrong'.

 

 

Hmmm... been around chiropractors my whole life. First time I've heard this one.

[Stronguy]

Steroids increasing height by an inch or so had never occurred to me.

 

"Anabolic steroids (and catabolic, for that matter) will not increase your height. Not even GH will do that. Once your growth plates close your skeleton is done growing. In fact may BBers who take steroids in their late teens end up missing out on their last growth spurt. Estrogen is what closes the growth plates (thus women being shorter than men). By taking extra androgens (particularly testosterone) you also increase estrogen... so you get short BBers (Lee Priest anyone?)"

 

Barry Bonds' head?

 

 

That's bone density and thickness; GH can do that. Bone lengthening, however, it will not. The only way people have been able to lengthen bones once the growth plates close it to graft in coral (chop long-bone in half... insert coral... let the bone mend through it). Thanks but no thanks.

[DR.X]

Some good reading here. I just caught this thread. I have to run out for a bit but I'll be back later with an interesting first hand story of Mentzer.

[Bosco685]

Some good reading here. I just caught this thread. I have to run out for a bit but I'll be back later with an interesting first hand story of Mentzer.

 

Mike Mentzer?

[Stronguy]

Some good reading here. I just caught this thread. I have to run out for a bit but I'll be back later with an interesting first hand story of Mentzer.

 

Mike Mentzer?

 

Is there another?

[Ajl007]

Steroids increasing height by an inch or so had never occurred to me.

 

Anabolic steroids (and catabolic, for that matter) will not increase your height. Not even GH will do that. Once your growth plates close your skeleton is done growing. In fact may BBers who take steroids in their late teens end up missing out on their last growth spurt. Estrogen is what closes the growth plates (thus women being shorter than men). By taking extra androgens (particularly testosterone) you also increase estrogen... so you get short BBers (Lee Priest anyone?)

 

Having done such a search, my new best guess is vertebral compression over time. That's where the most give in the body seems like it would be in terms of vertical height.

 

Yup, disk compression is a big factor and amplified by vertical weight lifting (things like squats and cleans). Just for grins I measured myself before and after a leg workout (which included multiple sets of squats going up to 500 lbs). I was a full 3/4" shorter after the leg workout than when I started. Everything was back to normal the next morning. It is also worth noting that you are taller in the morning than in the evening. Just being vertical is enough to shrink you... and it builds up over time.

 

I absolutely agree, after studying anatomy and physiology, genetics, steroids does not effect height, but prolonged lifting like squats especially puts tremendous loads and down force on your spine ie discs. It's not actually recommended to do squats and certain exercises such as squats and behind the neck press. Over time as you age we all get shorter, discs contain fluids and over time shrink. But now days there are prehormones which some say are safer alternative to steroids, but not so they will take their toll on your liver, heck even protein powder will have an effect.

[DR.X]

Some good reading here. I just caught this thread. I have to run out for a bit but I'll be back later with an interesting first hand story of Mentzer.

 

Mike Mentzer?

 

Is there another?

 

Well, His brother Ray was no slouch either. Really sad about these two.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Mentzer

[Bosco685]

Some good reading here. I just caught this thread. I have to run out for a bit but I'll be back later with an interesting first hand story of Mentzer.

 

Mike Mentzer?

 

Is there another?

 

Ray, his brother who was also a bodybuilder. Just saying.

 

 

Both are RIP, unfortunately.

[Bosco685]

Some good reading here. I just caught this thread. I have to run out for a bit but I'll be back later with an interesting first hand story of Mentzer.

 

Mike Mentzer?

 

Is there another?

 

Well, His brother Ray was no slouch either. Really sad about these two.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Mentzer

 

Bingo!

 

I had no idea how big Ray Mentzer got with the Heavy Duty program (250 pounds). Back then, that was huge for a bodybuilder.

 

[Ajl007]

Heart Attacks both of them.

[Bosco685]

Heart Attacks both of them.

 

 

I remember reading about Mike scoring perfectly for the Mister Universe. The guy was amazing!

 

Just checked.

 

In 1978, Mentzer won the Mr. Universe in Acapulco, Mexico with the first and only perfect 300 score. He became a professional bodybuilder after that 1978 Universe win. In late 1979, Mentzer won the heavyweight class of the Mr. Olympia, again with a perfect 300 score, but he lost in the overall to Frank Zane who was awarded the title for a third time that year.

[Ajl007]

Arnold just destroyed people mentally, he psyched out people before they got on stage. Arnold had it all, very smart, he knew how to sell himself, even to this day some 30 years removed from competition, his face on BB magazines will outsell all others.

[dgarthwaite-migration]

"We All Get Shorter As We Age, Research Confirms"

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/22/shorter-age-older-height_n_974432.html

 

DG

[Stronguy]

But now days there are prehormones which some say are safer alternative to steroids, but not so they will take their toll on your liver, heck even protein powder will have an effect.

 

Prohormones *are* steroids for all intents and purposes; the FDA has just not classified all of them as such. At least not yet. They have already hit all the Andros and their cousins. There are others out there but they will get restricted sooner or later.

[Stronguy]

Some good reading here. I just caught this thread. I have to run out for a bit but I'll be back later with an interesting first hand story of Mentzer.

 

Mike Mentzer?

 

Is there another?

 

Well, His brother Ray was no slouch either. Really sad about these two.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Mentzer

 

Bingo!

 

I had no idea how big Ray Mentzer got with the Heavy Duty program (250 pounds). Back then, that was huge for a bodybuilder.

 

 

:thumbsup:

[Bosco685]

Could their deaths be attributed to the Heavy Duty program stressing their bodies, or was it more about genetics?

[Stronguy]

Could their deaths be attributed to the Heavy Duty program stressing their bodies, or was it more about genetics?

 

I was just talking with some people about this the other day. Large people die young. The human body is just not made to support that much mass for that long. Combine the high blood pressure that comes with being really massive with the drugs that it takes to get that size and you're burning the candle at both ends. Unless you make some changes it will exploit a genetic weakness sooner or later.